This is a great example of the high quality audience tapes that circulated during this era. As good as any board. Preferable in some ways. The Estimated is worth the price of admission. You can hear the crowd return Bobby's crazy vocals. We love you man. Crazy Fingers is not too shabby either. A particularly poignant version.

The mayhem added to the edge that these shows had. Bad neighborhoods to park in, overcrowded situation, and the usual twisted Gooney air. Say what you will, but this all added to the spectacular edge that made it the best game in town all during this period. Merely getting in with your ticket took you closer to the gold ring down inside.

I still have no idea how the Tourmasters of the Universe got the white Birdsong Tbird out of the parking lot this night in the 1st 5 Min., but we did and through some tight spaces that had some freaks (you know who you are) wondering how we fit through there to hit the road for the journey back to Duh Capitol. Rearrange a few molecules here and there always helpful.

This is a nice recording. A little more bass would be nice, but that may have nothing to do with the taper. But it's better than 90% of the AUD recordings on here.

Hey Jon, f' 'em. This is a fine recording. You should be proud of your work, this and the previous night.

That said, this show's problems have nothing to do with the quality of this AUD - it's the band. The previous night, 4/2, is so damned good I easily can understand its release as part of the download series (although you can grab your AUD of choice for that one on the archives - highly recommend you do so).

Set 1 suffers from a lot of blown lyrics - Bobby, Jerry, and Phil all have some slip-ups. Call me another uptight 'head, but considering how many times they nailed these tunes, life's too short, know what I mean?

I will reserve one lone recommendation in this first set - Bobby and the band's reading of El Paso. It's cool to see others perked up and noticed how lovely the band takes this old cowboy tune down the line - reminds me of those old, gorgeous acoustic readings from 1970. I haven't listened to very much Dead at all from around July '88 to July '89 - happened upon these April shows due to their being, I guess, "strong enough" for official release, so I don't know if they generally liked to cover El Paso this way around this era, or if this was a happy fluke...

Set 2 is frustratingly *almost* there but never quite gets off the ground. If there are any tunes worth keeping, its that red-hot-out-of-nowhere Estimated, the dark, spooked-out drive of Drums > Space, and Stella. The BMR encore is lovely, too...the more upbeat rock tunes simply don't wash - its tough but understandable when the band keeps on keeping on in a show that clearly missed its departure boat - similar to a football team still trying, for dignity's sake, to manage themselves in the 4th quarter long after the victor has been decided.

So don't listen to naysayers regarding the quality of this recording - if you're a champion of 4/3 go for it! But I can't, for the life of me, understand why they decided to charge money for the SBD release of this show. The band has been in such better form - again, just check out that utterly dynamite 4/2!

5 for the AUD recording
2 for the show itself.

Thanks for recording and uploading this John. This and your recording of the night before as as good as it gets. Every bit as good as Oade brothers recordings. I have approx 2,000 SBDS. Even if I had one of this show I'd choose your recording. Same with the previous night. Another excellent performance as well. IMO

Again, I have no idea what this guy thinks is a good quality recording. These 2 nites I taped came out amazing and stack up to anything I have taped over these past 27 years.

VERY GOOD TASTE

Overall: good show, but not quite as strong as night before, IMO. Why is there a dearth of decent recordings of these Pitt shows?

The scene: after the disasters of the night before, this night had a cloud hanging over it. Police state in PA. I also remember hearing rumors that the band was really pissed off about the irresponsible behavior of people crashing the gates (duh, I was pretty pissed myself!). Nonetheless, they came out and still played a great show.

The music: Not quite the heavy hitter of the night before, but still interesting song selections and good play. El Paso was a bit of “break-out” as they hadn’t played it in quite some time. The Phil chanters got a decent Tom Thumb’s. Another second set Brent opener, with a ripping Blow Away. Whole second set is fairly strong. Brent is really prominent in these shows, which in my book is awesome, but some (crazy people!) don't agree.